Temporary Suspension of Electronic Communications

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are various embodiments for a transmission service to suspend temporarily transmission of electronic communications to a recipient. In one embodiment, the transmission service receives a request to suspend receiving electronic communications temporarily for a suspension period. In response, the transmission service suspends transmitting electronic communications to the recipient during the duration of the suspension period. Then, the transmission service resumes transmitting electronic communications to the recipient upon the expiration of the suspension period.

FIELD

This disclosure relates generally to computer technology, includinghardware and software, that is usable to allow a transmission of anelectronic message to be suspended.

BACKGROUND

Commercial and non-commercial entities engage in marketing campaigns topromote the sale of a variety of products and services, and/or elicitcontributions. For example, retailers may distribute advertisements,fliers, mailings, electronic communications and/or other types ofmarketing materials to announce sales and promote the sale of items.Retailers may communicate directly with the potential customer throughelectronic communications such as email, social network and/or SMSmessaging.

Recipients of the electronic communications may wish to stop thetransmission of the electronic communications for a period of time. Forexample, a recipient may wish to stop the transmission of electroniccommunications to prevent overcrowding of an inbox while on vacation orduring a particular season such as the Christmas holiday season.Recipients may then desire to resume receiving electronic communicationssubsequent to a particular time. Current systems are capable ofreceiving requests from recipients to remove the recipients'identification from mailing lists, but are not capable of sendingelectronic communications to recipients after a certain time period.However, the transmission of electronic communications may not resumeafter the period of time expires if the recipient does not re-subscribereceiving the electronic communications. Accordingly, systems andmethods are desirable that can allow a recipient to suspend temporarilyreceipt of certain electronic communications.

SUMMARY

One aspect is a tangible computer-readable medium that embodies aprogram executable in a computing device. The program includes code thatcan receive a first request to suspend transmission of electroniccommunications to a recipient during a suspension period. The firstrequest can be associated with a recipient identifier (ID). The programincludes code that can associate the recipient ID with a suspensionstate in response to receiving the first request to suspend transmissionof the electronic communications. The program includes code that canreceive a second request to transmit an electronic communication to therecipient. The program includes code that can prevent transmitting theelectronic communication to the recipient during the suspension periodbased on the association of the recipient ID with the suspension state.

In another embodiment, a system includes at least one computing deviceand a transmission service that is executable in the at least onecomputing device. The transmission service includes logic configured toreceive a request to suspend transmission of electronic communicationsto a recipient during a suspension period. The transmission servicefurther includes logic configured to suspend transmitting the electroniccommunications to the recipient during the suspension period byassociating a suspension state to a recipient ID representing therecipient. The transmission service includes logic configured to resumetransmitting the electronic communications to the recipient after thesuspension period expires.

In another embodiment, a method is provided. The method includesreceiving, by a computing device executing code stored on a tangiblemedium, a request to suspend transmission of promotional electroniccommunications to a recipient for a suspension period. The requestincludes a recipient ID for the recipient. The recipient ID isassociated with a suspension state by a computing device. Transmissionof the promotional electronic communications to the recipient issuspended by the computing device during the suspension period bypreventing the promotional electronic communications from beingtransmitted to the recipient based on the suspension state beingassociated with the recipient ID. The recipient ID is de-associated withthe suspension state by the computing device and at least one of thepromotional electronic communications is transmitted to the recipient inresponse to determining an expiration of the suspension period.

These illustrative aspects are mentioned not to limit or define thedisclosure, but to provide examples to aid understanding thereof.Additional aspects and embodiments are discussed in the DetailedDescription, and further description is provided there. Advantagesoffered by one or more of the various aspects and embodiments may befurther understood by examining this specification or by practicing oneor more aspects and embodiments presented.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Many aspects of the present disclosure can be better understood withreference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings arenot necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearlyillustrating certain features of the disclosure. Moreover, in thedrawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding partsthroughout the several views.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a networked environment according to oneembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 depicts data relationships usable to associate codes withattributes of an electronic message according to one embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are screen shots of a recipient interface rendered by aclient in the networked environment of FIG. 1 according to oneembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of functionalityimplemented as portions of a transmission service executed in acomputing device in the networked environment of FIG. 1 according to oneembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram that provides one exampleillustration of a computing device employed in the networked environmentof FIG. 1 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Certain aspects and embodiments relate to suspending temporarily thetransmission of electronic communications to a recipient in response toreceiving a request from the recipient to suspend transmission for adefinite period of time. Certain embodiments obviate the need to removea recipient identification permanently from a list of recipients (i.e.by placing the recipient identification on a “do not contact” list),while also allowing recipients more control over the electroniccommunications transmission process.

Systems according to some embodiments can leverage data relationshipsbetween, for example, a recipient identifier (ID), an active statusindicator, and a suspension status indicator, to avoid disrupting anelectronic communication process. For example, an electroniccommunication transmission engine can formulate electroniccommunications for each recipient ID in a table that is associated withan active status that represents that the respective recipient is in anactive status, which may mean that the engine is to formulate andtransmit an electronic communication to the recipient. The active statusmay be periodically updated using a second table that includessuspension information associated with recipient IDs. For a recipient IDassociated with a suspension status that indicates the respectiverecipient has requested a temporary suspension, the system can updatethe first table using the relationship of the first table and the secondtable to change the active status in the first table to indicate thatthe engine is to not send the recipient an electronic communications.The second table can include suspension information such as a date toresume electronic communications transmission to a recipient that isassociated with the recipient ID. In some embodiments, the system candetermine that the date to resume electronic communications transmissionis the current date or a past date, and change the active status in thefirst table during the next periodic update. Subsequently, the enginecan formulate an transmit electronic communications to the associatedrecipient.

In one embodiment, a transmission service that includes the engine mayinsert a selectable hyperlink in the electronic communications. Thehyperlink may correspond to a request to suspend transmission ofelectronic communications temporarily. Selection of the hyperlink by arecipient causes a recipient ID and the temporary suspension request tobe transmitted to the system. In response to receiving the request, thetransmission service configures the data associated with the recipientID accordingly, e.g. the data in the second table described above, ormay deliver to the recipient a web page that includes options foraffirming the temporary suspension request and receiving from therecipient a suspension end date. In another embodiment, the transmissionservice provides a network page that is accessible to the recipient,such as through a browser and/or through a hyperlink included in theelectronic communication. The network page can include fields to receivefrom the recipient information associated with the temporary suspensionrequest. The information may include recipient contact information,affirmation of the request, a suspension end date, and/or any otherrecipient provided instructions.

In the following discussion, a general description of the system and itscomponents is provided, followed by a discussion of the operation of thesame.

FIG. 1 illustrates a networked environment 100 according to someembodiments. The networked environment 100 includes a computing device103, a client 106, and a network 109. The network 109 includes, forexample, the Internet, intranets, extranets, wide area networks (WANs),local area networks (LANs), wired networks, wireless networks, or othersuitable networks, etc., or any combination of two or more suchnetworks.

The computing device 103 may include, for example, a server computer orany other system capable of providing computing capability. Although onecomputing device 103 is depicted, certain embodiments of the networkedenvironment 100 include more than one computing device. For example, oneor more computing devices 103 may be employed and arranged, for example,in one or more server banks or computer banks or other arrangements. Thecomputing devices together may include a cloud computing resource, agrid computing resource, and/or any other distributed computingarrangement. Such computing devices may be located in a singleinstallation or may be distributed among many different geographicallocations. For purposes of convenience, the computing device 103 isreferred to herein in the singular.

Various applications and/or other functionality may be executed in thecomputing device 103 according to certain embodiments. In addition,various data is stored in a data store 113 that is accessible to thecomputing device 103. The data stored in the data store 113, forexample, may be accessed, modified, removed, and/or otherwisemanipulated in association with the operation of the applications and/orfunctional entities described below.

The components executed on the computing device 103 can include atransmission service 116, and other applications, services, processes,systems, engines, or functionality not discussed in detail herein. Thetransmission service 116 can be executed to transmit electroniccommunications 146 to recipients. In one embodiment, the transmissionservice 116 provides for the recipient to suspend receiving electroniccommunications temporarily for a specified period of time. In someembodiments, during the suspension period, the transmission service 116may store the electronic communications 146 scheduled to be delivered tothe recipient in a data store to be accessed at a later time. In otherembodiments, the transmission service 116 avoids transmitting electroniccommunications 146 to the recipient that are scheduled for transmissionduring the suspension period.

The data stored in the data store 113 includes, for example, one or morerecipient data 119, one or more source data 120, and potentially otherdata. The source data 120 includes various data associated withcommercial and non-commercial entities that provide electroniccommunications for transmission to the recipients. Each source data 120may include a source name that may be represented by a unique source 143identifier. Additionally, each source data 120 includes electroniccommunications 146 provided by the source 143. For example, theelectronic communications 146 may include promotional material, such as,advertisements, marketing information, and/or other promotionalmaterial. In one instance, the electronic communications 146 may beemails advertising an ongoing sale for a product offered by the source143. In another embodiment, the electronic communications 146 may not beof a promotional variety. For example, the electronic communications mayinclude newspapers, newspapers, periodicals, journals, magazines, and/orother publications provided by a variety of entities.

The recipient data 119 includes various data associated with each one ofthe authorized recipients of the electronic communications 146. Eachrecipient data 119 may include recipient names, such as a uniquerecipient 123 identifier, and/or other data. Additionally, eachrecipient data 119 also includes correspondence information 126, asuspension state 129, a suspension period 133, and a set of suspensionpreferences 136. In one embodiment, the correspondence information 126may include a plurality of email addresses, social networking handles,short message service (SMS) handles, facsimile handles, and/or any othertype of correspondence information that can be used to transmitelectronic communications 146 to the recipient 123. The correspondenceinformation may be provided by the recipient 123 and/or another source.

The suspension state 129 indicates whether the recipient 123 hasrequested to suspend temporarily receiving electronic communications146. In one embodiment, the suspension state 129 may be a Boolean value(i.e., ‘1’ or ‘0’) that indicates whether the recipient 123 hassuspended receiving electronic communications. For example, a Boolean‘1’ may indicate that that the recipient 123 has suspended receivingelectronic communications and a Boolean ‘0’ may indicate that therecipient 123 has not suspended receiving electronic communications. Inother embodiments, the suspension state 129 may be represented in avariety of other ways, such as, for instance, a multi-digit numericalvalue, a character, a character string, and/or other data types.

The suspension period 133 represents a period of time during whichtransmission of the electronic communications 146 to the recipient 123has been temporarily suspended. In one embodiment, the transmissionservice 116 may receive from the recipient 123 a range of dates, anumber of days, weeks, months, and/or other duration during whichtransmission of the electronic communications 146 should be suspended.Additionally, the transmission service 116 may receive from therecipient 123 a resume date that represents the date when transmissionof electronic communications 146 should resume. In another embodiment,the suspension period 133 may be a default duration and/or a duration.

The suspension preferences 136 represents a listing of preferencesreceived by the transmission service 116 that regulate the suspension ofreceiving electronic communications. For example, the transmissionservice 116 may receive a request from the recipient 123 to suspendreceiving electronic communications 146 from a particular sender, withkeywords in a subject line, related to a specified subject matter,and/or any other suspension preference 136. Additionally, the recipient123 may specify suspending receipt of all electronic communications 146except for those electronic communications 146 that satisfy thesuspension preferences 136.

Additionally, in some embodiments, the recipient data 119 may alsoinclude a collection of suspended communications representing aplurality of stored electronic communications 146 that were scheduled tobe delivered to the recipient 123 during the suspension period 133. Inone embodiment, the recipient 123 may request that the electroniccommunications 146 be stored for accessing at a later time. For example,the recipient 123 may wish to browse the suspended communications at alater time. In another embodiment, the collection of suspendedcommunications representing the stored electronic communications 146 maybe automatically delivered to the recipient 123 when the suspension ofthe receipt of electronic communications 146 expires. For example, thecollection of suspended communications may be packaged together andtransmitted to the recipient as one communication.

The client 106 is representative of one or more client devices that maybe coupled to the network 109. The client 106 may include, for example,a processor-based system such as a computer system. Such a computersystem may be embodied in the form of a desktop computer, a laptopcomputer, a personal digital assistant, a cellular telephone, set-topbox, music players, web pads, tablet computer systems, game consoles, orother devices with like capability.

The client 106 may be configured to execute various applications such asa client side application 149, a browser 153 and/or other applications.The client 106 may be configured to execute client side applications 149applications such as, for example, email applications, instant messageapplications, and/or other applications. The browser 153 may be executedin a client 106, for example, to access and render network pages 156,such as web pages, or other network content provided by the computingdevice 103 and/or other servers. For instance, the browser 153 mayrender the network pages 156 on a display 159 associated with the client106.

A recipient 123 on a client 106 registers a recipient data 119 with thetransmission service 116 by manipulating one or more network pages 156generated by the transmission service 116. For example, the transmissionservice 116 may prompt the recipient 123 to provide identifyinginformation such as, a unique recipient identifier, correspondenceinformation 126, and/or any other data. In one embodiment, registering arecipient account may allow the transmission service 116 to facilitatetransmission of electronic communications 146.

The recipient 123 may then wish to suspend receipt of electroniccommunications 146. In one embodiment, the transmission service 116 mayinclude a hyperlink 148 to request the suspension in each electroniccommunication 146 transmitted to the recipient 123. For example, thehyperlink 148 may be included at the end of an email communicationtransmitted to the recipient 123. Further, the hyperlink 148 may includedescriptive text, such as, “Click here to suspend receiving emails,” orthe like. Additionally, a unique identifier may be embedded within thehyperlink 148 that uniquely identifies the recipient 123 invoking thehyperlink 148. When the recipient invokes the hyperlink 148, thetransmission service 116 receives the request to suspend receipt ofelectronic communications 146 and the unique identifier identifying therecipient 123.

Additionally, the transmission service 116 may include more than onehyperlink 148 in the electronic communication 146 where each onetransmits a different type of suspension request when invoked by therecipient 123. For example, invoking one of the hyperlinks 148 transmita request to suspend receipt of the electronic communications 146 for adefault suspension period 133. The default suspension period 133 may beany period of time established by the transmission service 116, providedby the source 143 of the electronic communications 146, and/or any otherperiod. Invoking other hyperlinks 148 may transmit requests to suspendreceipt of electronic communications 146 for different suspensionperiods 133. For example, the hyperlinks may include descriptive textindicating a duration of the suspension period 133, such as, a number ofdays, a number of weeks, a number of months, and/or any other durationof time.

In another embodiment, the recipient 123 may access the transmissionservice through a network page 156 to suspend receipt of electroniccommunications 146. Upon accessing, the transmission service 116 mayprompt the recipient 123 to indicate a suspension period 133 and listany suspension preferences 136. For example, the recipient 123 may wishto suspend receipt of electronic communications 146 from a specifiedsource 143, about a specified item, and/or any other characteristic. Inresponse, the transmission service 116 may then manipulate thesuspension state 129 associated with the recipient 123 to indicate thatthe recipient 123 has temporarily suspended receipt of the electroniccommunications 146. Additionally, the recipient 123 may request to storethe electronic communications 146 scheduled to be delivered to therecipient 123 during the suspension period 133 for access at a latertime. For instance, the transmission service 116 may store thoseelectronic communications 146 as suspended communications 139 inassociation with the recipient data 119 of the recipient 123.

In another embodiment, the transmission service 116 may automaticallydetermine to suspend transmission of electronic communications 146 basedon external factors. For example, the transmission service 116 mayidentify a magnitude of sales to a recipient 123 that is related to thetransmission of the electronic communications 146. If the magnitude ofsales does not exceed a threshold level, the transmission service 116may determine to suspend transmission of the electronic communications146 for a predetermined suspension period 133. In this embodiment, asale may be related to the transmission of the electronic communication146 if the recipient 123 initiates a transaction by invoking a hyperlinkincluded in the electronic communication 146. The transmission service116 may suspend transmission of the electronic communications 146 to therecipient 123 if the magnitude of sales resulting from the transactionsdo not exceed a threshold level.

In one embodiment, the transmission service 116 operates to transmitelectronic communications 146 with content provided by one or moresources 143 to recipients 123 on a period basis, such as, for instance,hourly, daily, and/or any other frequency. The transmission service 116may receive a distribution list 147 that includes correspondenceinformation 126 of all the recipients 123 scheduled to receive theelectronic communications 146. Alternatively, the transmission service116 may generate the distribution list 147 based on informationcontained within the recipient data 119, as can be appreciated.

Upon identifying the distribution list 147, the transmission service 116parses the entries in the distribution list 147 to identify a firstrecipient 123 on the distribution list 147, the correspondenceinformation 126 of the first recipient 123, and the suspension state 129of the first recipient 123. The transmission service 116 then determineswhether the suspension state 129 indicates that the first recipient 123has temporarily suspended receiving electronic communications 146. Forexample, the suspension state 129 may be a Boolean value indicating thatthe first recipient 123 has not temporarily suspended receiving theelectronic communications 146. In this instance, the transmissionservice 116 facilitates the transmission of electronic communications146 to the first recipient 123.

As another example, the suspension state 129 may be a Boolean valueindicating that the first recipient 123 has temporarily suspendedreceiving the electronic communications 146. In this instance, thetransmission service 116 does not facilitate the transmission of theelectronic communications 146 to the first recipient 123. In oneembodiment, the recipient 123 may have requested that the electroniccommunications 146 scheduled to be delivered during the suspensionperiod 133 be stored for accessing at a later time. Accordingly, thetransmission service 116 may insert the electronic communications 146 inthe collection of suspended communications associated with the firstrecipient 123. For example, the suspended communications may be acollection of communications that can be modified to insert theelectronic communications 146. Upon processing the first recipient 123on the distribution list 147, the transmission service 116 advances tothe next recipient 123 on the distribution list 147 and initiates thetransmission process, as described above, until all of the recipients123 in the distribution list 147 have been processed.

Data relationships can be used to allow the transmission service 116 todetermine whether to transmit an electronic communication 146 to arecipient 123. FIG. 2 depicts examples of data relationships that can bestored in the data store 113 or in a separate storage device, such as adatabase, that is communicatively coupled to the computing device 103.The data relationships include two tables of data that can be associatedwith each other through a recipient identifier (shown in the tables as“Recipient_ID”). The recipient identifier can be decrypted from a codeor can be associated with a randomly generated code. Alternatively, therecipient identifier may be similar to the recipient 123 data stored inthe data store 113.

The mailing table includes the recipient 123 (“Recipient_ID”) and activeindicator (“Active_Status”). The mailing table may include a variety ofentries where each of the entries depict data from the recipient data119. In this example, the “Recipient_ID” may represent the recipient 123and the “Active_Status” indicates whether to include the recipient 123represented by the “Recipient_ID” in the distribution list 147. Forinstance, the “Active_Status” may be represented by a Boolean valuewhere a “1” indicates that the recipient 123 represented by the“Recipient_ID” should be included in the distribution list 147.Similarly, a Boolean of “0” may indicate that the recipient 123represented by the “Recipient_ID” should not be included in thedistribution list 147. The transmission service 116 may build thedistribution list 147 by processing each entry in the mailing table asdescribed above.

The transmitting table includes the recipient 123 (“Recipient_ID”), asuspension state 129 (“Suspension_Status”), and a suspension period 133(“Resume_Date”). The transmitting table may include several entries ofrecipients 123 (“Recipient_ID”) that are associated with the“Active_Status.” The “Suspension_Status” may be a Boolean valueindicating whether the recipient 123 has requested that transmission ofelectronic communications 146 be temporarily suspended. For instance, aBoolean value of “1” may indicate that the recipient 123 associated withthe “Recipient_ID” has previously requested that transmission of theelectronic communications 146 be suspended. In one embodiment, the“Suspension_Status” may be similar to the suspension state 129.

Additionally, the “Date_Resume” may represent a date on whichtransmission of electronic communications 146 to the recipient 123resumes. In one embodiment, the “Date_Resume” field may only be activefor a “Recipient_ID” when the recipient 123 associated with the“Recipient_ID” has requested the temporary suspension. The “Date_Resume”may indicate a date for resuming transmission of the electroniccommunications 146 to the recipient 123. In one embodiment, the“Date_Resume” may be a character string that is similar to thesuspension period 133.

FIG. 3 is one example of a network page 156, denoted herein as networkpage 156 a, according to various embodiments of the present disclosure.In one embodiment, the network page 156 a is generated by thetransmission service 116 (FIG. 1) and provided by the computing device103 (FIG. 1). The browser 153 then renders the network page 156 a on thedisplay 159 of the client 106. The blocks and components that comprisenetwork page 156 a represent one example of an approach to present thecontent depicted in the network page 156 a.

In this embodiment, network page 156 a depicts an interface for therecipient 123 (FIG. 1) to request a temporary suspension of receipt ofelectronic communications 146 (FIG. 1). The network page 156 a includesa recipient ID 203, a sender field 206, a recipient field 209, a subjectline field 213, a keywords field 216, a suspension field 219, a storecommunications block 223, a deliver stored communications block 226, asubmit button 229, a reset button 233, and a view stored communicationsbutton 236. In one embodiment, the recipient ID 203 represents theunique recipient identifier of the recipient 123 currently accessing thenetwork page 156 a.

The sender field 206, recipient field 209, subject line field 216, andkeywords field 219 provide for the recipient 123 to indicate a number ofsuspension preferences 136 (FIG. 1). For example, in the sender field206, the recipient 123 may provide identifying information of a senderof electronic communications 146 such as, names, email addresses, socialnetworking handles, fax numbers, and/or any other type of contactinformation. In the recipient field 209, the recipient 123 may provideidentifying information of distribution lists, recipient groups, socialnetworking groups, and/or any other listing of recipient groups to whichelectronic communications 146 are addressed. For example, the recipient123 may belong to an email distribution list 147 (FIG. 1) for shoppersof a particular item. The recipient 123 may wish to temporarily suspendall emails transmitted to the email accounts listed in the distributionlist 147.

In the subject line field 213, the recipient 123 may provide identifyingkeywords that may appear in a subject line of electronic communications146. For example, the recipient 123 may wish to suspend receivingcommunications advertising holiday sales in the subject line, such as,any Valentine's Day sales, Black Friday sales, back to school sales,and/or any other type of holiday sale. Additionally, the recipient 123may wish to temporarily suspend electronic communications 146 with anyother keyword that may appear in the subject line, such as, for example,names of items, geographic locations of retailers, magnitude ofdiscounts, and/or any other keyword. Similarly, in the content field216, the recipient 123 may provide keywords that may appear in thecontent of the electronic communications 146, as can be appreciated.

In the suspension field 219, the recipient 123 may indicate a suspensionperiod 133 (FIG. 1) to indicate the duration of the temporarysuspension. For example, the recipient 123 may provide a range of datesto indicate the duration, a resume date when transmission of electroniccommunication resumes, a month during which transmission of electroniccommunications will be suspended, and/or other input to indicate theduration. In one embodiment, the suspension field 219 may include adefault value and/or a drop down menu from which the recipient 123 mayselect a suspension period 133.

In the store communications block 223, the recipient 123 may indicatewhether to store the electronic communications 146 scheduled to bedelivered during the suspension period 133. For example, the recipient123 may wish to access those electronic communications 146 at a latertime, as described above. In this example, the transmission service 116may store the electronic communications 146 as suspended communications139 (FIG. 1) in association with the recipient data 119 (FIG. 1) of therecipient 123. Additionally, in the deliver stored communications block226, the recipient 123 may indicate whether to deliver the contents ofthe suspended communications to the recipient 123 when the suspensionperiod 133 expires. For example, the recipient 123 may wish to receiveall of the suspended communications as a single email communication atthe end of the suspension period 133.

Additionally, invoking the submit button 229 transmits the request tothe transmission service 116 to suspend transmitting electroniccommunications 146 to the recipient 123 according to the suspensionpreferences 136 for the suspension period 133. Invoking the reset button233 transmits a request to reset the fields and blocks depicted in thenetwork page 156 a.

In FIG. 4, shown is one example of a network page 156, denoted herein asnetwork page 156 b, according to some embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

In one embodiment, the network page 156 b is generated by thetransmission service 116 (FIG. 1) and provided by the computing device103 (FIG. 1). The browser 153 then renders the network page 156 b on thedisplay 159 of the client 106. The blocks and components that comprisenetwork page 156 b represent one example of an approach to present thecontent depicted in the network page 156 b.

In this embodiment, network page 156 b depicts an interface for therecipient 123 (FIG. 1) to manage the suspension of electroniccommunications 146 (FIG. 1) after the recipient 123 has alreadyrequested the electronic communications 146 to be suspended. As shown inFIG. 4, the network page 156 b includes a view suspension details button253, a reconfigure suspension button 256, a terminate suspension button259, and a view stored communications button 263. In one embodiment,invoking the view suspension details button 253 transmits a request tothe transmission service 116 to generate a new network page 156 todepict the suspension configurations previously established by therecipient 123. For example, the new network page 156 may depict thesuspension period 133 (FIG. 1), the suspension preferences 136 (FIG. 1),and/or any other suspension related setting.

Additionally, invoking the reconfigure suspension button 256 transmits arequest to the transmission service 116 to re-establish the suspensionsettings. For instance, the recipient 123 may be presented with thecontents of network page 156 a (FIG. 2) to provide a new set ofparameters for the fields included in network page 156 a. Invoking theterminate suspension button 259 transmits a request to the transmissionservice 116 to terminate the suspension of receipt of electroniccommunications previously requested by the recipient 123. For example,the recipient 123 may request the terminate being in the suspensionstate 129 (FIG. 1) prior to the expiration of the suspension period 133(FIG. 1). Finally, invoking the view stored communications button 263transmits a request to the transmission service 116 to view thesuspended communications 139 (FIG. 1) stored in the data store 113 (FIG.1). For example, the transmission service 116 may provide a new networkpage 156 that depicts the contents of the suspended communications 139,as can be appreciated.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart that provides one example of the operation of aportion of the transmission service 116 according to variousembodiments. It is understood that the flowchart of FIG. 5 providesmerely an example of the many different types of functional arrangementsthat may be employed to implement the operation of the portion of thetransmission service 116 as described herein. As an alternative, theflowchart of FIG. 5 may be viewed as depicting an example of steps of amethod implemented in the computing device 103 (FIG. 1) according to oneor more embodiments.

Beginning with box 503, the transmission service 116 identifies arecipient 123 (FIG. 1) to transmit an electronic communication 146 (FIG.1). For instance, the transmission service 116 may parse a distributionlist 147 (FIG. 1) to identify recipients 123 to whom an electroniccommunication 146 is scheduled for transmission. The transmissionservice 116 may process each recipient 123 on the distribution list 147in a sequential manner to determine whether to transmit an electroniccommunication to each of the respective recipients 123, as describedabove.

In box 506, the transmission service 116 determines whether therecipient 123 has suspended receiving electronic communications 146. Inone embodiment, the recipient 123 may have previously transmitted arequest to the transmission service 116 to suspend electroniccommunications 146 for a suspension period 133 (FIG. 1), as shown onnetwork page 156 a (FIG. 2). The transmission service 116 may haveupdated the suspension state 129 (FIG. 1) when the recipient 123previously submitted the request to suspend. Thus, in one embodiment,the transmission service 116 may determine whether the recipient 123 haspreviously suspended receiving electronic communications 146 byanalyzing the suspension state 129 associated with the recipient 123.For example, the suspension state 129 may be represented by a Booleanvalue indicating the preference of the recipient 123.

If the transmission service 116 determines that the recipient 123 hasnot suspended receiving electronic communications 146, then thetransmission service 116 proceeds to box 509 to transmit the electroniccommunication 146 to the recipient 123. For example, the transmissionservice 116 may facilitate an email transmission of a electroniccommunication 146 (FIG. 1) provided by a source 143 (FIG. 1), asdescribed above. The transmission service 116 then returns to box 503 toprocess a next recipient 123 listed in the distribution list 147.

Returning to box 506, if the transmission service 116 determines thatthe recipient 123 has suspended receiving electronic communications 146,then the transmission service 116 suspends the transmission of theelectronic communication 146 to the recipient 123, as shown in box 513.In one embodiment, the transmission service 116 may proceed to box 503and advance to the next recipient 123 listed in the distribution list147 to repeat the process, as described above. In another embodiment,the transmission service 116 advances to box 516 to determine whetherthe recipient 123 has requested to store the electronic communicationsscheduled for delivery during the suspension period 133.

If the transmission service 116 determines that the recipient 123 hasrequested to store the electronic communications 146, then transmissionservice 116 proceeds to box 519 to store the electronic communications146. In one embodiment, the transmission service 116 stores theelectronic communications 146 as suspended communications, as describedabove. Upon storing the electronic communications 146, the transmissionservice 116 proceeds to box 503 to process a next recipient 123 in thedistribution list 147, as described above. Returning to box 516, if thetransmission service 116 determines that the recipient 123 has notrequested to store the electronic communications 146, then thetransmission service 116 proceeds to box 503 to process a next recipient123 in the distribution list 147, as described above.

With reference to FIG. 6, shown is a schematic block diagram of thecomputing device 103 according to an embodiment of the presentdisclosure. The computing device 103 includes at least one processorcircuit, for example, having a processor 603 and a memory 606, both ofwhich are coupled to a local interface 609. To this end, the computingdevice 103 may comprise, for example, at least one server computer orlike device. The local interface 609 may comprise, for example, a databus with an accompanying address/control bus or other bus structure ascan be appreciated.

Stored in the memory 606 are both data and several components that areexecutable by the processor 603. In particular, stored in the memory 606and executable by the processor 603 are a transmission service 116, andpotentially other applications. Also stored in the memory 606 may be adata store 113 and other data. In addition, an operating system may bestored in the memory 606 and executable by the processor 603.

It is understood that there may be other applications that are stored inthe memory 606 and are executable by the processors 603 as can beappreciated. Where any component discussed herein is implemented in theform of software, any one of a number of programming languages may beemployed such as, for example, C, C++, C#, Objective C, Java,Javascript, Perl, PHP, Visual Basic, Python, Ruby, Delphi, Flash, orother programming languages.

A number of software components are stored in the memory 606 and areexecutable by the processor 603. In this respect, the term “executable”means a program file that is in a form that can ultimately be run by theprocessor 603. Examples of executable programs may be, for example, acompiled program that can be translated into machine code in a formatthat can be loaded into a random access portion of the memory 606 andrun by the processor 603, source code that may be expressed in properformat such as object code that is capable of being loaded into a randomaccess portion of the memory 606 and executed by the processor 603, orsource code that may be interpreted by another executable program togenerate instructions in a random access portion of the memory 606 to beexecuted by the processor 603, etc. An executable program may be storedin any portion or component of the memory 606 including, for example,random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), hard drive,solid-state drive, USB flash drive, memory card, optical disc such ascompact disc (CD) or digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, magnetictape, or other memory components.

The memory 606 is defined herein as including both volatile andnonvolatile memory and data storage components. Volatile components arethose that do not retain data values upon loss of power. Nonvolatilecomponents are those that retain data upon a loss of power. Thus, thememory 606 may comprise, for example, random access memory (RAM),read-only memory (ROM), hard disk drives, solid-state drives, USB flashdrives, memory cards accessed via a memory card reader, floppy disksaccessed via an associated floppy disk drive, optical discs accessed viaan optical disc drive, magnetic tapes accessed via an appropriate tapedrive, and/or other memory components, or a combination of any two ormore of these memory components. In addition, the RAM may comprise, forexample, static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random accessmemory (DRAM), or magnetic random access memory (MRAM) and other suchdevices. The ROM may comprise, for example, a programmable read-onlymemory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), anelectrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or otherlike memory device.

In addition, the processor 603 may represent multiple processors 603 andthe memory 606 may represent multiple memories 606 that operate inparallel processing circuits, respectively. In such a case, the localinterface 609 may be an appropriate network 109 (FIG. 1) thatfacilitates communication between any two of the multiple processors603, between any processor 603 and any of the memories 606, or betweenany two of the memories 606, etc. The local interface 609 may compriseadditional systems designed to coordinate this communication, including,for example, performing load balancing. The processor 603 may be ofelectrical or of some other available construction.

Although the transmission service 116, and other various systemsdescribed herein may be embodied in software or code executed by generalpurpose hardware as discussed above, as an alternative the same may alsobe embodied in dedicated hardware or a combination of software/generalpurpose hardware and dedicated hardware. If embodied in dedicatedhardware, each can be implemented as a circuit or state machine thatemploys any one of or a combination of a number of technologies. Thesetechnologies may include, but are not limited to, discrete logiccircuits having logic gates for implementing various logic functionsupon an application of one or more data signals, application specificintegrated circuits having appropriate logic gates, or other components,etc. Such technologies are generally well known by those skilled in theart and, consequently, are not described in detail herein.

The flowchart of FIG. 5 the functionality and operation of animplementation of portions of the transmission service 116. If embodiedin software, each block may represent a module, segment, or portion ofcode that comprises program instructions to implement the specifiedlogical function(s). The program instructions may be embodied in theform of source code that comprises human-readable statements written ina programming language or machine code that comprises numericalinstructions recognizable by a suitable execution system such as aprocessor 603 in a computer system or other system. The machine code maybe converted from the source code, etc. If embodied in hardware, eachblock may represent a circuit or a number of interconnected circuits toimplement the specified logical function(s).

Although the flowchart of FIG. 5 a specific order of execution, it isunderstood that the order of execution may differ from that which isdepicted. For example, the order of execution of two or more blocks maybe scrambled relative to the order shown. In addition, two or moreblocks shown in succession in FIG. 5 may be executed concurrently orwith partial concurrence. Further, in some embodiments, one or more ofthe blocks shown in FIG. 5 may be skipped or omitted. In addition, anynumber of counters, state variables, warning semaphores, or messagesmight be added to the logical flow described herein, for purposes ofenhanced utility, accounting, performance measurement, or providingtroubleshooting aids, etc. It is understood that all such variations arewithin the scope of the present disclosure.

Also, any logic or application described herein, including thetransmission service 116, that comprises software or code can beembodied in any non-transitory computer-readable medium for use by or inconnection with an instruction execution system such as, for example, aprocessor 603 in a computer system or other system. In this sense, thelogic may comprise, for example, statements including instructions anddeclarations that can be fetched from the computer-readable medium andexecuted by the instruction execution system. In the context of thepresent disclosure, a “computer-readable medium” can be any medium thatcan contain, store, or maintain the logic or application describedherein for use by or in connection with the instruction executionsystem. The computer-readable medium can comprise any one of manyphysical media such as, for example, magnetic, optical, or semiconductormedia. More specific examples of a suitable computer-readable mediumwould include, but are not limited to, magnetic tapes, magnetic floppydiskettes, magnetic hard drives, memory cards, solid-state drives, USBflash drives, or optical discs. Also, the computer-readable medium maybe a random access memory (RAM) including, for example, static randomaccess memory (SRAM) and dynamic random access memory (DRAM), ormagnetic random access memory (MRAM). In addition, the computer-readablemedium may be a read-only memory (ROM), a programmable read-only memory(PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), anelectrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), or othertype of memory device.

It should be emphasized that the above-described embodiments of thepresent disclosure are merely possible examples of implementations setforth for a clear understanding of the principles of the disclosure.Many variations and modifications may be made to the above-describedembodiment(s) without departing substantially from the spirit andprinciples of the disclosure. All such modifications and variations areintended to be included herein within the scope of this disclosure andprotected by the following claims.

Therefore, the following is claimed:
 1. A tangible computer-readablemedium embodying a program executable in a computing device, the programcomprising: code configured to receive a first request to suspendtransmission of electronic communications to a recipient during asuspension period, wherein the first request is associated with arecipient identifier (ID); code configured to associate the recipient IDwith a suspension state in response to receiving the first request tosuspend transmission of the electronic communications; code configuredto receive a second request to transmit an electronic communication tothe recipient; and code configured to prevent transmitting theelectronic communication to the recipient during the suspension periodbased on the association of the recipient ID with the suspension state.2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, further comprising: codeconfigured to receive a distribution list comprising correspondenceinformation of a plurality of recipients; code configured to determinewhether each one of the recipients included in the distribution list haspreviously requested to suspend receiving electronic communications; andresponsive to the determination that one of the recipients has notpreviously requested suspension, code configured to transmit theelectronic communications to the respective one of the recipients. 3.The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first request tosuspend transmission of the electronic communications is received inresponse to a determination to suspend transmission based at least inpart on a magnitude of sales associated with the previous transmissionof electronic communications to the recipient.
 4. A system, comprising:at least one computing device; and a transmission service executable inthe at least one computing device, the transmission service comprising:logic configured to receive a request to suspend transmission of aplurality of electronic communications to a recipient for a suspensionperiod; logic configured to suspend transmitting the electroniccommunications to the recipient during the suspension period byassociating a suspension state to a recipient identifier (ID)representing the recipient; and logic configured to resume transmittingthe electronic communications to the recipient after the suspensionperiod expires.
 5. The system of claim 4, wherein the electroniccommunications comprise content transmitted via at least one of an emailcommunication, a short message service (SMS) message, and a messagereceived through a social network.
 6. The system of claim 4, wherein thelogic configured to receive the request to suspend transmission of theplurality of electronic communications to the recipient for thesuspension period comprises logic for receiving the suspension periodfrom the recipient.
 7. The system of claim 4, wherein the suspensionperiod is a default period of time.
 8. The system of claim 6, whereinlogic configured to receive the request to suspend transmission of theplurality of electronic communications to the recipient for thesuspension period comprises logic for providing a selectable list ofavailable periods of time for the suspension period and for receiving aselection of a period of time as the suspension period from therecipient.
 9. The system of claim 4, wherein logic configured to receivethe request to suspend transmission of the plurality of electroniccommunications to the recipient for the suspension period compriseslogic for receiving the request from a selectable hyperlink.
 10. Thesystem of claim 4, further comprising logic configured to receive achange request to change the suspension period during the suspensionperiod.
 11. The system of claim 4, wherein the electronic communicationscomprise at least one of a plurality of marketing materials and aplurality of advertising materials.
 12. The system of claim 11, furthercomprising: logic configured to determine whether the recipient ID isassociated with the suspension state; and responsive to a determinationthat the recipient ID is associated with a suspension state, logicconfigured to store the electronic transmissions scheduled to bedelivered to the recipient in a data store while the recipient ID isassociated with the suspension state.
 13. The system of claim 4, furthercomprising logic configured to transmit the electronic communicationsthat were scheduled to be delivered during the suspension period to therecipient after the suspension period expires.
 14. A method, comprising:receiving, by a computing device executing code stored on a tangiblemedium, a request to suspend transmission of promotional electroniccommunications to a recipient for a suspension period, the requestcomprising a recipient identifier (ID) for the recipient; associating,by the computing device, the recipient ID with a suspension state;suspending, by the computing device, transmission of the promotionalelectronic communications to the recipient during the suspension periodby preventing the promotional electronic communications from beingtransmitted to the recipient based on the suspension state beingassociated with recipient ID; and responsive to determining anexpiration of the suspension period, de-associating, by the computingdevice, the recipient ID with the suspension state, and transmitting atleast one of the promotional electronic communications to the recipient.15. The method of claim 14, further comprising storing, by the computingdevice, the suspended promotional electronic communications in a datastore.
 16. The method of claim 14, wherein the promotional electroniccommunications comprise at least one of a plurality of marketingmaterials and a plurality of advertising materials.
 17. The method ofclaim 14, wherein the promotional electronic communications comprisecontent transmitted by at least one of an email communication, a SMSmessage, and a message on a social network.
 18. The method of claim 14,further comprising: responsive to receiving, by the computing device, aresume request to resume transmission of the promotional electroniccommunications prior to the expiration of the suspension period,resuming transmission of the promotional electronic communications. 19.The method of claim 14, further comprising: receiving a plurality ofsuspension preferences to regulate the suspension.
 20. The method ofclaim 19, wherein the suspension preferences comprise at least one ofsender information, recipient information, a plurality of subject linekeywords, and a plurality of subject matter keywords.